Sunday, March 20, 2005

350-358: Altruism

These findings suggest that true altruism, far from being a maladaptation, may be the key to our species' success by providing the social glue that allowed our ancestors to form strong, resilient groups. It is still crucial for social cohesion in today's very different world. "Something like it had to evolve," Gintis says.

Evolutionary biology teaches us about how human society developed. There are still questions to answer, and debates that they discuss.